'Just because you may have been right about finding something down here, does not make us friends, Chekatilo. There is still to be a reckoning between us.'
'I know that, Empire man.' promised Chekatilo, the flames from his torch making his features dance. 'Debts to be honoured.'
'What are you talking about?'
'Who do you think got you the map of the boyarins' territories that allowed you to hunt Sasha Kajetan?' asked Chekatilo. 'You think Rejak just found it on street and thought to give it to you? I did this favour for you and will soon ask you to repay that debt.'
'I knew that it had come from you.' said Kaspar. 'But one thing I never understood was how you knew I needed it.'
Chekatilo laughed. 'Thank your fool of a friend, Korovic, for that.'
'Pavel? Why?'
'He came to me and told me you had been to see that snake, Losov. Said you needed to find Boyarin Kajetan's lands quickly, but that he had thrown you out of his office.'
'He wouldn't believe that Sasha was the Butcherman.' said Kaspar.
'Pavel begged me to help you, said you would be in my debt if I did.'
Kaspar's jaw tightened and he shook his head at Pavel's foolishness. It was typical behaviour for him, doing what he thought was for the best, but leaving someone else to pay the price for his good deeds. And to be indebted to a man like Chekatilo...
Who knew what he would demand in return for the aid he had given.
But misguided though Pavel may have been, Kaspar knew that without the map Chekatilo had provided, they would not have been able to bring Sasha Kajetan to justice.
Before Kaspar could ask what price Chekatilo would demand of him he heard a faint scratching noise, barely audible above the noise of the sewer and just at the edge of hearing. He glanced over his shoulder to Rejak and Bremen, who had ventured down the passageway through the archway to examine the cart tracks, but they seemed oblivious to the noise.
A prickling sensation worked its way up his spine as he turned back and saw the dark shapes he had noticed earlier in the water drifting towards them at the edge of the pool. Almost immediately Kaspar saw that the water's current was flowing out of the chamber and that the dark shapes were moving against it.
The scratching noise was getting louder too; he was sure of it.
'We need to get out of here.' he said. 'Right now.'
Chekatilo gave him a puzzled glance then followed the direction of his stare, his eyes widening as he saw what the ambassador was looking at.
'Ursun's blood.' he hissed, backing away from the edge and shouting. 'Rejak!'
Kaspar backed away with him and drew his sword as the scratching noise suddenly swelled in volume and hundreds of enormous black-furred rats swarmed into the chamber, pouring from almost every passageway and climbing from the water with lethally sharp fangs bared for attack.
V
Sasha Kajetan thrashed at his bindings, screaming himself hoarse. He could feel their scratching, clawing presence in his mind, their Chaos-tainted blood calling to his own polluted vital fluid. He could sense their hunger and their malice as a physical thing that echoed in his trueself and filled him with dark thoughts of murder and mayhem.
He knew he would not be able to resist the trueselfs embrace for much longer and all that was once human of him would be swallowed by its lethal madness.
The door to his cell opened and the hooded gaoler came in, his cudgel raised.
'Time you shut your mouth, you murderous bastard.'
'You don't understand.' yelled Kajetan. 'Death is abroad this night, I cannot stay here!'
'I said be quiet!' shouted the gaoler, hammering the sole of his hobnail boot into Kajetan's face. The swordsman's head slammed into the wall and he felt blood and teeth fly from his jaw.
'Please!' wailed Kajetan, spitting a phlegmy wad of bloody spittle.
He pulled himself upright and had a last fleeting image of the gaoler's cudgel before it slammed into his skull and sent him spinning into unconsciousness.
VI
Kaspar drew his sword as the rats poured into the chamber, fear dumping a hot jolt of adrenaline into his system. The surface of the pool thrashed with swimming rats, their bristle-haired fur black and shining in the lamplight as they sped through the water towards their prey.
'Sigmar's hammer,' hissed Kurt Bremen, drawing his sword and rushing to Kaspar's side. Chekatilo and Rejak hurriedly backed away from the passageway the cart tracks disappeared into as they heard the frantic scratching of hundreds of claws and the shrill squealing of yet more rats from its darkened depths.
Kaspar held his sword and burning torch before him, ready to defend himself, but the rats seemed content simply to watch them, gathering their numbers before closing for the kill.
'Why don't they attack?' whispered Kaspar, as though volume alone might trigger an assault.
'I not know,' said Chekatilo, as something pale and bloated moved sluggishly through the undulating mass of vermin. They parted before the passage of this creature and as it emerged from the mass of rats, Kaspar saw with disgust that it was a large, albino-haired rat with long, distended fangs and bloated belly. The rat looked up at them and hissed, the lamplight reflecting as tiny red pinpricks from its slitted eyes.
As the rat stared at them, Kaspar was struck by the dreadful intelligence he saw there, realising that it was somehow appraising them. Its pointed snout twitched, sniffing the air. Kaspar heard a clink of glass behind him and risked a hurried glance over his shoulder. Rejak rummaged through the canvas satchel once more, removing a handful of glass vials filled with a translucent liquid.
'What are you doing?' hissed Kaspar.
Rejak looked up and grinned. 'After rats attack brothel, I decide I will be prepared if I see many rats again.'
Kaspar nervously licked his lips, unsure as to what Rejak meant, but said nothing, watching the monstrous white rat as it cocked its head to one side as though listening to a sound only it could hear.
'When I shout "run", you run like all the daemons of Chaos were after you. Back the way we came, you understand?' said Rejak.
The white rat hissed again and the rats surged forwards in a heaving, snapping mass, Rejak threw the vials of liquid at the nearest rodents. Chekatilo hurled his torch as the vials shattered and a sheet of flame erupted in the midst of the rats. They squealed and dashed away from the blazing oil, burning rats screeching and rolling in agony as they died.
'Run!' shouted Rejak, sprinting through the gap that had opened in the mass of rats and leaping over the flames. Kaspar bolted after the assassin, swinging his sword at a rodent that leapt towards him with its fangs bared. The blade chopped into its body and sent it tumbling as Kaspar hurdled the flames unleashed by Rejak's vials of oil.
He landed badly, his knee twisting under him, but managed to keep his footing as Chekatilo and Bremen ran along behind him, the rats swarming after them.
Kaspar heard another vial of oil shatter ahead.
Chekatilo shouted, 'Ambassador! Hurry!'
Kaspar turned into the tunnel they had come from, jolts of pain shooting up his leg as his twisted knee flared painfully with each stride. He passed Rejak, who had lit another torch as a boiling mass of rats surged into the tunnel after them. Kaspar heard a whoosh of flames and the tunnel was suddenly illuminated with dancing flames. More rats were dying, but uncounted others were bypassing the flames by leaping into the effluent and swimming past the flaming barrier.
'Hurry!' shouted Rejak. 'Fire will give us time, but not much.'
Chekatilo moved fast for such a big man and overtook Kaspar, whose knee was now an agonised knot of fire. His pace slowed and he knew he could not carry on for much longer. He heard the click, click, click of clawed feet racing towards him and forced himself onwards, fighting to ignore the pain from his knee.
Kurt Bremen helped Kaspar as the rats swarmed forwards, their speed and tenacity incredible. Their squeals were deafening, magnified by the water and close confines of the
tunnel. Kaspar heard a loud squeal, far too close, and felt a heavy weight land on his back. He stumbled, pitching forward and was only saved from falling flat out by Bremen's hand.
He twisted wildly, slamming his back against the wall of the tunnel in an attempt to dislodge the rat. He heard it squeal in pain then screamed as he felt its razor-sharp teeth bite into his neck. Its powerful jaws bit again before Kurt Bremen spun him around and hacked the rat in two with one stroke of his long blade.
Even in the midst of this horror, Kaspar was amazed at Kurt Bremen's precise swordsmanship, and pressed onwards, pressing his hand to his bleeding neck. The Knight Panther followed the ambassador, jogging backwards and watching for any other rats that might have managed to get past the flames. Blood spilled around Kaspar's fingers and he knew he was lucky the rat hadn't bitten through the main artery in his neck.
Kaspar ran on blindly, following the bobbing light of Rejak's lamp that glowed like a beacon ahead. He didn't know how far they had to go before reaching safety, but prayed that it would be soon.
He heard Kurt Bremen yell in pain and turned to see the knight struggling with a horde of biting and clawing rats. Three clawed at his legs, while another dragged its long incisors down the metal of the knight's breastplate. He swung the lantern and stabbed with his sword, but the rats were too quick, darting away from the deadly point of the weapon.
Kaspar drew his pistols and leaned against the tunnel wall for support, taking careful aim at the struggling knight. His first shot blew the rat clawing at Bremen's chest apart, his second hurling another into the sewage. The rats paused in their attack, frightened by the sudden noise, and the knight gave them no chance to recover, stamping down on one and skewering the other with his sword.
'Good shooting,' he panted, limping as fast as he could along the tunnel. Beyond the lantern's glow, Kaspar could see a writhing mass of black-furred bodies as they swarmed along the tunnel towards them and realised Rejak's fiery barrier must have finally gone out.
He jammed his pistols into his belt, struggling onwards with Bremen and hearing the scrabble of claws and snap of sharpened teeth growing louder and louder as they ran. They rounded a bend in the tunnel and Kaspar shouted, 'There!' as he saw the cone of daylight that descended from the sewer opening on the Goromadny Prospekt. Chekatilo was nowhere in sight, but Rejak remained at the bottom of the ladder.
'Must hurry!' shouted Rejak and Kaspar had never more wanted to punch him.
He reached the ladder, his chest heaving and his knee throbbing in pain, but began climbing as quickly as he could towards the light and safety. He gritted his teeth against the pain, feeling more blood pulse from the wound in his neck.
As he reached the top, Chekatilo's thick hands reached down and pulled him through the sewer opening. He took a great gulp of fresh air, like a drowning man breaking the surface of the ocean, and rolled away from the opening. Snow soaked through his clothes in seconds and he felt icy chill seep into his bones, but he was too glad to be out of the sewers to care.
Rejak quickly followed, vaulting through the opening in the ground and grabbing hold of the bronze sewer cover. Kurt Bremen came next, the knight bleeding from a score of bites.
'Hurry!' he cried. 'Sigmar help me, but they're climbing the ladder!'
He stumbled over to Rejak and helped him drag the cover over.
Between them, they manhandled the heavy plate over the sewer entrance and dropped it in place with a loud clang, falling back in fear-induced exhaustion.
The four men backed away from the sewer cover, weapons poised, but whatever nightmarish intelligence the rats possessed, it did not stretch to passing through heavy bronze. Long seconds passed in silence before all four men let out a collective breath and gradually lowered their weapons.
'I hate rats.' said Kaspar finally, sagging against Kurt Bremen as the pain in his knee and neck returned with renewed ferocity.
Kurt Bremen took the weight of Kaspar's injured knee, though he too was badly hurt.
'We need to get back to the embassy.' said the knight. 'Get Madame Valencik to look at that bite and get some ice on your knee.'
Kaspar nodded and said, 'Chekatilo, where is that ratcatcher you brought to the embassy?'
'Back in the Lubjanko.' said Chekatilo. 'Best place for him.'
'Meet us there in two hours, I need to speak to him.'
'What for?'
'I want to know if he saw who was in that sewer.' said Kaspar. 'He might be our only chance of finding out what the hell is going on here and I need you to translate for me.'
CHAPTER FIVE
I
With Kurt Bremen's help, Kaspar made it back to the embassy, though his knee was an agonised mass of pain by the time they passed through the iron gates of its courtyard. The embassy guards helped the knight carry the ambassador inside, calling for Madame Valencik as they lifted him into the receiving room.
Sofia hurried into the receiving room as the guards laid him on a long couch, tying her long hair into a ponytail and rubbing her red-rimmed eyes. Even through the pain of his knee and the bite on his neck, Kaspar was struck by how tired Sofia looked.
She knelt by his side as Kurt Bremen carefully removed his boot and gently rolled up the leg of his britches. A basin of water and cloths were brought and Sofia began cleaning the wound at his neck.
'You stupid old fool,' said Sofia, dabbing water on the cut. 'This is no way for a man of your age to behave.'
'I am beginning to agree with you...' he hissed as she moved on to prod at the swollen bruising on his kneecap.
'And a man of your standing, running around in sewers,' she said, shaking her head. She beckoned one of the embassy guards over and despatched him to get some ice and wrap it in a towel.
'Turn your head.' she said, returning her attention to Kaspar. 'What happened anyway?'
'I jumped and landed awkwardly.'
'No, I mean to your neck.'
'A rat bit me. A big one.'
Sofia nodded and removed a jar of a white, oily cream from her satchel and scooped a handful onto her fingers. Kaspar smelled its strong odour and winced as Sofia spread it liberally over the bite on his neck.
'What is that? It stings like hell.'
'Camphor mixed with white wax and castor oil.' explained Sofia. 'It should help fight any infection the rat's bite might have carried and will numb the area a little.'
With the bite cleaned, she applied a folded bandage and bound it in place with another, which she wrapped around him and tied off behind his neck.
Kaspar grunted in pain as she began massaging his knee, working her fingers deep into his flesh and kneading the ligaments beneath. The guard she had commanded to retrieve ice returned and she placed the freezing bundle of cloth atop Kaspar's knee.
'Let us hope that the cold will bring down the swelling.' said Sofia, turning from the ambassador to begin seeing to the wounds suffered by Kurt Bremen.
'By Sigmar, I hope so.' said Kaspar.
'And did you find anything?' asked Sofia without turning. 'Was it worth all the trouble to go down there after all?'
'Yes, Kaspar, did you find anything?' said Anastasia, appearing at the entrance to the receiving room, her arms folded across her chest and dark hair bound up in a severe bun.
Kaspar nodded, wary at the mocking tone he heard in Anastasia's question.
'I think so, yes.' he answered. 'Tracks and rats. Lots of rats.'
'Tracks of what?'
'People and a cart by the look of them. I think someone had tunnelled into the sewers to deliver something to someone. The ratcatcher Chekatilo found in the Lubjanko said he saw people and a coffin, but I don't know how reliable a witness he is.' 'If he came from Chekatilo, then I would say highly unreliable,' snapped Anastasia.
'I'm not so sure,' said Kaspar, angry that Anastasia was once again dismissing his theories so quickly. 'I don't think he would make such things up.'
'Last night you said the man was a lunatic,' said Anast
asia. 'You said he spoke of rats that walked like men? Seriously, have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous?'
'There are beasts that walk on two legs in the depths of the forests and in the far north,' pointed out Sofia. 'Perhaps it was one of those monsters he saw?'
'Oh, you would take his side, wouldn't you?' sneered Anastasia.
'What is that supposed to mean?' demanded Sofia.
'You know fine well. Don't think I haven't seen the way you fawn all over him. I know what you want.'
Kaspar could feel this confrontation spinning out of control and said, 'I agree that it does sound far-fetched, but I think he did see something down there. And as soon as the swelling on my knee goes down, I shall go to the Lubjanko and find out what.'
'It is a fool's errand,' said Anastasia.
'Perhaps,' snapped Kaspar, 'but I will go anyway.'
'I cannot believe you are trusting Chekatilo,' said Anastasia, shaking her head incredulously. 'After all that's happened, you'd take his side over mine.'
'Sides? What are you talking about, woman? This is not a matter of sides, it is a matter of getting to the bottom of what has been happening in this damned city for the past few months.'
'Then I think you are a gullible fool, Kaspar,' cried Anastasia. 'I think you are being taken in by a fat crook who wants nothing more than to take advantage of your stupidity!'
Kaspar's lips pursed in anger. He was unused to being spoken to in this manner and felt his temper fraying rapidly.
'Damn it, Ana, why must you always ridicule what I think?' shouted Kaspar. 'I have many faults, but I flatter myself that I do not count stupidity among them. Chekatilo is involved in this, yes, but I do not believe he is behind what is happening. There is conspiracy afoot in Kislev and I mean to get to the bottom of it.'
'Then you will do it alone.' said Anastasia, spinning on her heel and storming from the room. A heavy silence fell and Kaspar felt every eye in the room upon him.